________________
296
COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
identity of the human souls and the ultimate reality.. In the mystical experience the individual is liberated and exalted with a sense of having found what it has always sought and flooded with joy.' So far as Jainism is concerned, some of the earliest authorsaints like Kundakunda and Pūjyapāda have described transcendental experiences and mystic visions.35
Jaina mysticism turns round two concepts : Ātman and Paramātman... Paramātman stands for God, though never a ereator, etc. The creative aspect of divinity, I think, is not the sine qua non of mysticism. Atman and Paramātman are essentially the same, but in Samsāra, the Ātman is under Karmic limitations, and therefore he is not as yet evolved into a Paramātman. It is for the mystic to realise this identity or unity by destroying the Karmic encrustation of the spirit. In Jainism the conception of Paramātman is somewhat nearer that of a personal absolute. The Ātman himself becomes the Paramātman, and not that he is submerged in the universal as in the Vedanta. In Jainism spiritual experience does not stand for a divided self achieving an absolute unification, but the bound individual expresses and exhibits his patential divinity... The soul following the religious path, goes higher and higher on the rungs of the spiritual ladder called Guņasthānas and from stage to stage till the various Karmas are destroyed... Some of the Guņasthånas are merely meditational stages and the subject of meditation is the potential attributes of the pure Ātman... The aspirant is warned not to be misled by certain Siddhis, i. e. miraculous attainments, but go on pursuing the ideal till the Ātman is realised. 3 6
We have seen in Chapter VI that in Jaina theory of knowledge, there are three kinds of direct knowledge : the Avadhi Jñāna, the Manahparyāya Jñāna and the Kevala Jñāna. It is only by the attain ment of Kevala Jñana that the soul can know and see everything regardless of time and space. The Tërthankara is an ideal teacher who has attained the highest spiritual experience. He words are of highest authority. Jainism contains all the essentials of mysticism. To evaluate mystical visions rationally is not to value them at all. These visions carry a guarantee of truth undoubtedly
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
